i could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure the vault was released with prince's consent. in fact, i'm fairly certain he compiled it (and again, it'd be hard for anyone else to do it since he records at home and owns his masters, and only delivered finished projects to wb). it was the last of his contract-breakers with wb (which also included the greatest hits/b-sides collection, an official release of the black album, and a 15-minute medley of hits ("purple party mix") that warners agreed to let be consider one of the albums he owed them. the vault is also a pretty good record, much better than the previous collection of studio leftovers (crystal ball) that he foisted on fans, 3 discs of blither followed by a fourth of new material that was one of his best records of the '90s. (of course, if you're in his fan club, you had to wait for months to get the fourth disc, even tho it was already in stores, but that's another story). _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail